All approvals received, 58% recall completed: Volkswagen

Pune: Volkswagen (VW) has said it has completed recall for 58% — about 1,98,000 — of its vehicles till mid-August 2017 while receiving all approvals from the Automotive Research Agency of India (ARAI) for its fix solutions. A senior officer in ARAI confirmed that the company has received all the approvals for the software and hardware fix solutions it provided. In December 2015, the company had announced a recall of 3,23,700 cars, which began in September 2016. Later the total number of cars to be recalled and fixed was updated to 3,43,000, which were fitted with EA 189 engines and sold between 2008 and 2015. The company recently submitted a report to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) regarding the number of units it has recalled and fixed. “Volkswagen Group India has submitted to the NGT the status on the number of cars with EA189 engine in India that have undergone the latest technical updates in line with the ones done on customer cars in Europe. The status submitted was as on 15 August 2017,” said a company spokesperson. The company said its fixes will realign tail-pipe emissions, but as reported earlier by TOI, no agency is going to check the efficacy of the fix. ARAI had earlier said it is not part of the mandate given to it by the government. In the wake of the emission scandal first breaking out in the US in September 2015, the department of heavy industries (DHI) mandated ARAI to conduct on-road test of vehicles. Indian laws do not provide for on-road testing of vehicles for emissions. ARAI submitted its report to the DHI in November end 2015 and it found that the tested cars to be emitting 5-9 times more nitrogen oxide than in standard test conditions. The company said it is a “voluntary recall” to align cars sold in India with “technical updates” elsewhere around the globe. The probe has since shifted to the ministry of road transport and highways, which said in a RTI reply that it has got a report and has formed a panel to look into the culpability of the firm to purposefully rig emissions in India.